Poems

by Iain Banks, Ken MacLeod

Iain Banks is celebrated as a novelist and science fiction writer. It is less well known that his first published work was the poem '041', in New Writing Scotland in 1983. Like the poems that appeared within his novels, this was selected from the many he had written between 1973 and 1981.Banks took his poetry seriously and worked on it assiduously, but showed it mostly to friends. He first thought of publishing his poetry late in 2012, though insisted it be a joint collection with his life-long friend Ken MacLeod. The two writers were working on this project when Banks learned of his terminal diagnosis, and continued thereafter. He made his final revisions just days before his death.Readers of Iain Banks' novels will find in the poems a further affirmation of the humane, sceptical and clear-eyed sensibility that informed all his work, shot through as ever with a dry wit that continues to disturb and delight. Ken MacLeod edited and introduces this collection.

Genres: Poetry, Science Fiction, Scotland, Fiction

176 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 2015

About the author

This author also published science fiction under the pseudonym Iain M. Banks.

Banks's father was an officer in the Admiralty and his mother was once a professional ice skater. Iain Banks was educated at the University of Stirling where he studied English Literature, Philosophy and Psychology. He moved to London and lived in the south of England until 1988 when he returned to Scotland, living in Edinburgh and then Fife.

Banks met his wife Annie in London, before the release of his first book. They married in Hawaii in 1982. However, he announced in early 2007 that, after 25 years together, they had separated. He lived most recently in North Queensferry, a town on the north side of the Firth of Forth near the Forth Bridge and the Forth Road Bridge.

As with his friend Ken MacLeod (another Scottish writer of technical and social science fiction) a strong awareness of left-wing history shows in his writings. The argument that an economy of abundance renders anarchy and adhocracy viable (or even inevitable) attracts many as an interesting potential experiment, were it ever to become testable. He was a signatory to the Declaration of Calton Hill, which calls for Scottish independence.

In late 2004, Banks was a prominent member of a group of British politicians and media figures who campaigned to have Prime Minister Tony Blair impeached following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In protest he cut up his passport and posted it to 10 Downing Street. In an interview in Socialist Review he claimed he did this after he "abandoned the idea of crashing my Land Rover through the gates of Fife dockyard, after spotting the guys armed with machine guns." He related his concerns about the invasion of Iraq in his book Raw Spirit, and the principal protagonist (Alban McGill) in the novel The Steep Approach to Garbadale confronts another character with arguments in a similar vein.

Interviewed on Mark Lawson's BBC Four series, first broadcast in the UK on 14 November 2006, Banks explained why his novels are published under two different names. His parents wished to name him Iain Menzies Banks but his father made a mistake when registering the birth and he was officially registered as Iain Banks. Despite this he continued to use his unofficial middle name and it was as Iain M. Banks that he submitted The Wasp Factory for publication. However, his editor asked if he would mind dropping the 'M' as it appeared "too fussy". The editor was also concerned about possible confusion with Rosie M. Banks, a minor character in some of P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves novels who is a romantic novelist. After his first three mainstream novels his publishers agreed to publish his first SF novel, Consider Phlebas. To distinguish between the mainstream and SF novels, Banks suggested the return of the 'M', although at one stage he considered John B. Macallan as his SF pseudonym, the name deriving from his favourite whiskies: Johnnie Walker Black Label and The Macallan single malt.

His latest book was a science fiction (SF) novel in the Culture series, called The Hydrogen Sonata, published in 2012.

Author Iain M. Banks revealed in April 2013 that he had late-stage cancer. He died the following June.

The Scottish writer posted a message on his official website saying his next novel The Quarry, due to be published later this year*, would be his last.

* The Quarry was published in June 2013.

Reviews

[Tabitha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful. Pleading, honest, and heartfelt work by a youthful Banks has its charms. Some of the poems are a little naive, but they were written in the 70's and well, weren't you naive when you were much younger? It's a wonderful collection which honours a brilliant author.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

The poems here by the late Iain Banks were written when he was a young man. As such they are an interesting insight into his thinking and ideas at that time, rather than great works of poetry. They have some themes that he came back to in his novels, with strident images of nuclear war and the deceptions of religion. Ken MacLeod's poems have a bit more substance. Iain Banks and fellow SF writer Ken MacLeod apparently came up with the idea of publishing their early poems before Iain Banks knew about his terminal cancer, which makes it a poignant book.

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Banks is genius and his genius shines through in his mostly dark poems. I admit poetry is not my reading strongpoint and I often have to read a poem a few times before it connects with me but as I wanted to read more poetry I was thrilled to discover Banks wrote poetry. I didn’t know what to expect but in some I glimpsed The Culture, in others his heart, in others his mind, and in others I was just confused. A good collection of poetry.

[Frank Ashe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up because it had some Iain Banks in there.
By far the best poem was the last one in the book, by Ken MacLeod.
They're better at their novels than their poetry, but it's still 3 stars.

[Kirsten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Die meisten kennen Iain Banks als den Mann, der die Wasp Factory geschrieben, oder als Iain M. Banks, den Autor von Science Fiction Romanen. Dabei war das Erste, was von ihm veröffentlicht wurde ein Gedicht: '41'. Banks schrieb Gedichte zwischen 1973 und 1981, hatte aber außer dem ersten kein weiteres Gedicht veröffentlicht. Erst Ende 2012 dachte er darüber nach, gemeinsam mit seinem Freund Ken MacLeod einen gemeinsamen Gedichtband zu veröffentlichen. Die Beiden arbeiteten auch nach Banks' Krebsdiagnose weiter, aber erst über ein Jahr nach seinem Tod wurde die Sammlung veröffentlicht.

Der Unterschied zwischen Iain Bank und Ken MacLeod wird schnell klar. Banks wirft dem Leser oft nur einzelne Worte oder Sätze hin, während Ken MacLeod zusammenhängender schreibt. Vom Stil erinnern mich die Gedichte von Iain Banks an einige seiner späten Romane wie The steep approach to Garbadale oder The Quarry. Nur ab und zu blinzelt der Science Fiction Autor zwischen den Zeilen hervor.

Ich habe lange gebraucht, um die Gedichte zu lesen. Iain Banks ist einer meiner Lieblingsautoren und ich finde es traurig zu wissen, dass es nach diesem Buch nichts Neues mehr von ihm geben wird. Für mich ist es etwas Besonderes, jemand, der seine Bücher nicht kennt sieht das wahrscheinlich anders.

[Richard Clay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Banks' poems are dense and abstract; MacLeod''s are evocative of places and people - sometimes strikingly so. The exception to this is Banks' marvellous 'Jack', which is an early version in poetic form of one of the stories from The State of the Art. Banks' poems would seem to come from a time before he started work on The Wasp Factory, where he found a voice far more uniquely his own than, 'Jack' aside, he did anywhere here. Even though two of the poems were later written into Use of Weapons, few would argue they didn't function better as parts of what may or may not be Banks' finest novel, than as individual works.

MacLeod fans will want this book: it shows the wit and sharpness that we find in The Fall Revolutions to good effect. For Banks fans, it's more a matter of watching him learn, through poetry, to bring the economy to his language that the novels show so brilliantly.

When I read The Quarry a year ago, I noted that it felt like a goodbye to Banksie and that I doubted this volume would be the same. I was right about that, but it's worth it just to see the development of such an important writing talent.

[Neep · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think what mostly surprised me about Banks' poems were that they seemed a lot more modern than they should've been because a lot of them are from the mid-to-late 70s, however, I shouldn't have expected dated and dusty poems from the brilliant mind of Iain Banks - some may have been underdeveloped, but they all had potential. The form of the poems were a lot more modern than I expected - line breaks in unexpected places - and the content is still relevant. Sometimes the subject matters were very taboo and sometimes they were sci-fi, both of which are to be expected from Banks but were quite refreshing. The poems were a tiny bit abstract at times, which poetry can sometimes benefit from, but I did find it a little off-putting occasionally. He floundered a little in the poems about nature and love, which are pretty standard poetry fodder. Ken MacLeod's poems were also good, much more political and even more sci-fi than Banks' (which had seemed to get more sci-fi as the years went by on page). MacLeod had some really stand-out lines and fragments of poems. This whole book made me kinda wanna seek out more sci-fi themed poetry because it's a fascinating clash.

[Bec · Rating 4 out of 5]

"In the bodycount a mega-notch is carved.
How many peasants has the Free World starved?"
- from "Stalin", MacLeod (1974) page 119

This may set the tone for the entire book. The 1970's were a bleak time, but behind the hope of the hippy movement, this was probably the experience of the general culture of the time, and it doesn't really get talked about. This was a hard hitting read for me.

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting collection of poems from Banks and MacLeod: rich, dense and capturing the youthful spirit of Banks on the verge of launching his writing career, while MacLeod's writing covers a wider range of time, but is no less thought provoking.

[Chris Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's lovely to read just One More Book by Iain Banks. Even though I'm not a great fan of poetry, these poems are touching and beautiful.

[Joe Currie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was aight

[Lysergius · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ah, Poetry & the 1970s. Who didn't write poetry in the 70s?

Having read these carefully and after much consideration if I have to choose between the poetry of Banks and MacLeod I have to say I enjoyed the latter more. Banks was great novelist and wrote wonderful SF but I was not particularly impressed by his poetry. There are some fine conceits and an odd turn of phrase that sparkles, but generally rather pedestrian. It is also curious that there is no later stuff. Anyway, fascinating as they help to "round out the man".

[Ken Richards · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating look at another side to Iain Banks - his poetry, written from 1973 to 1981, largely before he was published, together with Ken Macleod's work over a longer breadth of time, as the two friends had agreed before Iain's untimely death.
It was a pleasure to read more of his words and those of his good friend, both of which will bear rereading over time. The themes of the poems do bleed through to Bank's later novels, his elegant turn of phrase, humour and snark evident in this early work. Macleod's poems strike as more polished though without the rawer power.

[Gaby · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Poem to me is only as good as it evokes in you or touches tour understanding. The poetry here was completed and rich and interesting bit series the allusions and references flew over my head. Still a very beautiful collection of poetry by men who are or were reluctant to class themselves poets.

[Mugren Ohaly · Rating 1 out of 5]

MacLeod's poems are much better than Banks'

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

A sad conclusion to a glorious body of work, these works are truly only for the completist.

[Nico Reznick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still missing you, Mr Banks.

[Avani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Touching and fun